As the Dust Settles

I am writing this as an impartial observer, without any political leaning of any kind. As the dust settles on the "demonetisation" and some realities seem to sink in, it may be a good time to look at the pluses and minuses so far- this may change due to subsequent actions of various stakeholders.

The shock value was delivered impeccably- an achievement in itself.

The initial reactions indicated that broadly, people supported the decision, assuming all would be back to normal in a few weeks.

It is not clear why the government chose to change the size of the notes, requiring recalibration of all ATMs. This delayed the functioning of ATMs at full capacity.

The cash supply has not yet returned to normal, at least not in the ATMs. This is from personal experience in at least three cities that I travelled to in the past week.

Possibility of corruption in RBI, banks and so on seems to have been overlooked. This has siphoned off a lot of money that could have reached the common man, giving the government a  bad name.

Now, a question. Could there have been a better way to catch the guys with black money (not just in cash, but real estate and so on)? Were they explored?

People have certainly learnt how to stand in a queue, as a by-product, and maybe some nationalism has come in where it was not explicit.

All told, it was a great disruption in many lives. I hope it will not affect the economy too badly, particularly the daily wage workers.

What Elections Mean- to us and the US

They give you an illusion that you (and they) are going to change the world, most of the time. If that were true, it should have changed every five years- or four. Sometimes, your world changes for the better. More often, it remains the same, because the visible portion of the government changes, and the invisible remains more or less the same. Where are the big ideas that will change lives dramatically? I fail to see what either Hillary or Trump will do in that direction. Nothing that I heard in the flashes of the debates that I saw gave me even a clue.

So it may not really change anything for most of the people in the U.S., if I can make a prediction. And to think that India needs a particular President in the U.S. to do well itself is really foolish. We have to pull up our socks and work at it, in more ways than one. One of these ways is stop expecting any miracles from our government, and work harder if we want to see results.

You could of course, dismiss these as ramblings of an apolitical citizen. And you would be right!